Author: Dan Homan
Date: 10:28:24 06/16/99
Go up one level in this thread
On June 15, 1999 at 23:47:07, Melvin S. Schwartz wrote: > >I disagree. They're running programs on different hardware and that doesn't make >for intelligent evaluations of program vs. program. Furthermore, I didn't say >they shouldn't do it, but rather what is to be accomplished by testing program >against program on various types of hardware that is not of equal stature. They >can do it - but is it truly meaningful??? > Depends on what you mean by meaningful. This contest is to find the best artifical chess player. I think that is pretty meaningful. Notice that I said "player" not program. Clever algorithms are only one component of a chess player. Hardware is important too. Some artifical players use special purpose hardware.... Deep Blue for example. The question is: "What is the best artifical player?" Now, if you want to use the results to say something about the relative strength of the algorithms you can buy for your home computer, you are out of luck.... The results from this contest are not meaningful in that particular way, but they are meaningful in other ways. If you still are doubtful, we could turn this around. Suppose that you have organized a tournament. In your tournament all the same kinds of computers are used and all the newest commercial software is playing. Now, I could critize your tournament as not being meaningful because it doesn't tell us what the best "artificial chess player" is. By not including other kinds of artificial chess players and other types of hardware, I could say that your results were tainted. If I said these things about your hypothetical tournament, I would be dead wrong because I would be putting my meaning into your results rather than looking at what you were trying to do. Your results would tell us which commercially available program is best on the hardware you selected. - Dan >Mel > >>TP
This page took 0 seconds to execute
Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700
Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.